Light duty pays less

When you go back on modified duty at reduced wages, the benefit is temporary partial disability — and it is not two-thirds of your wage.

Labor Code § 4654:

"If the injury causes temporary partial disability, the disability payment is two-thirds of the weekly loss in wages during the period of such disability."

Two-thirds of the loss. Not two-thirds of what you earn, and not the difference itself. The statute also reduces the payment by any unemployment compensation or extended duration benefits received in the same period.

Three things this gets wrong most often

The rate is set by your date of injury. It does not change for the life of the claim, no matter when the payment is made. This is the single most common error on rate pages, and it applies to temporary partial disability exactly as it applies to total. The rates, with their effective dates.

Partial weeks count against the 104. § 4656(c)(2) caps temporary disability at 104 weeks within five years of the date of injury, and a week of temporary partial disability is a week. Nine conditions get 240 weeks instead under § 4656(c)(3). How the cap works.

The earnings figure is contested more than the arithmetic. Everything here is two-thirds of a difference, so what you were earning before decides it.

Four ways to compute what you were earning — Labor Code § 4453(c)

Most people assume there is one. There are four, and the statute says which applies when.

§ 4453(c)(1) — regular full-time work:

"Where the employment is for 30 or more hours a week and for five or more working days a week, the average weekly earnings shall be the number of working days a week times the daily earnings at the time of the injury."

§ 4453(c)(2) — two or more employers, and this one is missed constantly:

"Where the employee is working for two or more employers at or about the time of the injury, the average weekly earnings shall be taken as the aggregate of these earnings from all employments computed in terms of one week…"

§ 4453(c)(3) — irregular pay:

"If the earnings are at an irregular rate, such as piecework, or on a commission basis, or are specified to be by week, month, or other period, then the average weekly earnings … shall be taken as the actual weekly earnings averaged for this period of time, not exceeding one year…"

§ 4453(c)(4) — part-time, or where none of the above fits fairly:

"…the average weekly earnings shall be taken at 100 percent of the sum which reasonably represents the average weekly earning capacity of the injured employee at the time of his or her injury, due consideration being given to his or her actual earnings from all sources and employments."

If you worked a second job, or your hours varied, or you were paid partly in tips or commission, the figure the carrier used is very often the wrong one — and it multiplies through every week of every benefit in your case.